Weather set to twist title battle; veteran prepares for ‘emotional’ last dance: Adelaide 500 burning questions

Championships are forged in the heat of battle, but title contenders Will Brown and Broc Feeney will also have to contend with the heat of an early Adelaide summer if they’re to achieve Supercars glory this weekend.

The concrete canyon that is the Adelaide Street Circuit is set to swelter in 36°C heat on Saturday, the first day the championship can be decided. Just for fun, rain is also on the radar too.

It’s the sort of forecast that might just inject some unpredictability into a title battle for which the chips are stacked heavily in Brown’s favour.

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Can Feeney capitalise to tighten the screws, or will Brown keep cool at the crunch to seal his maiden title triumph?

WHO WILL WIN THEIR MAIDEN TITLE?

The biggest question of the weekend is probably also the most straightforward.

Brown leads Feeney by 180 points. The first question therefore isn’t who can win it; it’s whether Feeney can win back enough points on Saturday just to survive to Sunday afternoon.

With 150 points available for victory, he must outscore the title leader by 30 points or more to fight another day.

That’s roughly the difference between first and fourth.

In other words, if Brown finishes on the podium, he’ll win the championship with a race to spare.

“It’s great to be in the championship lead but also in the hunt going into the last round,” he said.

“It’s the same focus each weekend — no mistakes — and we’ll see what happens in Adelaide.

“I’m sure the gloves will come off a little bit in Adelaide and we’ll both try and race as hard as we can.

“We’ll make sure we don’t run into each other, but it’s exciting versing him for the championship going into the last one.”

Feeney, however, has form on his side, at least in Adelaide.

The 22-year-old won the 500 in his rookie season two years ago and finished on the podium again last year. Brown has never finished the race better than sixth.

“I’m a long shot at the moment, but I’m still in the hunt, so I certainly won’t give up until it’s all over,” Feeney said.

“I’m excited. Adelaide’s good for me. I’ll go there and try to win the 500 and we’ll see what happens at the end of the day.”

No matter the outcome, it’ll be an important chapter in the history of the sport.

Both Brown and Feeney are the future of the category. One of them will win their maiden title this weekend. It almost certainly won’t be their last.

New champions are the lifeblood of motorsport, and Supercars is set for a crucial boost whatever happens on Sunday.

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CAN DJR GET ONE BACK OVER GROVE AFTER GOLD COAST PENALTY PAIN?

A fascinating power play unravelled in the background of the Gold Coast 500, with the eagle-eyed Grove team launching several protests against Tickford and Dick Johnson Racing over pit lane infringements.

Both teams — along with Walkinshaw Andretti United, which was later dragged into the saga — were found to have improperly placed their wheels in the pit lane during some pit stops during Saturday’s race.

It was a shrewd move by Grove, with DJR docked 60 points each for a pair of breaches.

It dropped the Stapylton squad to fifth in the standings. Grove moved up to fourth.

With Anton de Pasquale retiring from Sunday’s race, those positions were locked in for the final round.

“Rules are rules, we’ve all got to play by the rules,” Grove principal David Cauchi said.

“They all impact performance. It’s so tight as you can see, we’re all fighting for the smallest marginal gains.”

With two races to go, Grove holds fourth — the head of the midfield — by 144 points, almost half of which are thanks to the Gold Coast penalty points.

Teams championship standings, midfield

4. Grove Racing: 3310 points

5. Dick Johnson Racing: 3166 points

6. Erebus Motorsport: 3154 points

7. Matt Stone Racing: 3133 points

8. PremiAir Racing: 3083 points

9. Team 18: 2965 points

But it’s not just that DJR could lose out to Grove right at the end of the year. It’s that it’s now vulnerable to several chasing teams hoping to demote it further down the order.

Erebus, rejuvenated by the reinvigorated Brodie Kostecki, is just 12 points behind. Matt Stone Racing is only 33 points adrift.

PremiAir, constantly flirting with big results, is 83 points away from pulling off a considerable upset.

Dick Johnson Racing has had a torrid time of things in Gen3. After last year’s four podiums, including one win, it’s stood on the rostrum just three times this season and is still without a victory. It’s set to finish the year well short of its 2023 haul of 3604 points.

The fallen giant is now facing the prospect of morale hammer blow from teams its pedigree ought to be keeping it well ahead of.

WILL KOSTECKI’S COMEBACK CONTINUE?

The difference maker to that battle could well be Kostecki, who has just one more weekend to enjoy his status as reigning champion.

Kostecki’s title defence was over before it had even begun, with a rumoured falling out with management keeping him out of the car for the first two rounds and costing him significant points.

He’s since confirmed he’ll leave the team at the end of the year — ironically to join Dick Johnson Racing.

After a patchy return to the sport, Kostecki has fired up and is now one of the form drivers of the series.

He’s the highest scoring drive over the last three races, and that streak could well have extended further backwards had it not been for a technical retirement at Sandown.

His victory in Bathurst was dominant, and his pace on the Gold Coast on Sunday was electrifying, leaving no-one in doubt that Kostecki is back at his best.

He’ll be motivated this weekend too to end his Erebus tenure on a high. After all, this is the driver-team combination that won each other their first championships.

Kostecki has never finished on the podium in Adelaide, a statistic compounded by a risk-averse performance here last year, where he turned a pair of poles into sixth and eighth at the flag, doing only what was required to seal the championship.

Returning in sizzling form, victory at one of the sport’s premier events would be a fitting send-off to his Erebus career.

CAN ANOTHER YOUNG GUN SPRING A SURPRISE?

The Adelaide 500 has developed a reputation for many things in the quarter-century since the sport’s first championship race, but since returning to the calendar at the end of the season in 2022 it’s added a new facet to its mythology.

Both events have delivered a maiden victory to a rookie driver.

It was Feeney in 2022, scoring his breakout victory on Sunday. It was the final race of the Gen2 era and the last race contested by a Holden Commodore, making the triumph particularly meaningful.

Last year Feeney was beaten to Sunday glory by Matt Payne, cementing the Kiwi’s status as a rising star.

Ryan Wood, on the eve of stepping up to his full-time WAU drive, also dominated both races in Super2 at the end of his one and only season in the junior series.

If the quirky statistic is to extend to a third year, Wood is one of the candidates as one of three rookies on the grid this season.

It would have to come against the run of play. Wood’s record around street tracks this year hasn’t been stellar, with a solitary sixth in Townsville his only top-10 finish on public roads, excluding Albert Park.

He comes off a particularly tough weekend on the Gold Coast in which he twice finished outside the top 20, although he’d qualified ninth for the Sunday race.

But then again, he was particularly impressive in Adelaide last year, so a good result can’t be entirely discounted.

The only other two candidates are Jaxon Evans — freshly re-signed for another year at Brad Jones Racing — and Aaron Love at Blanchard Racing Team, but their records this season makes them even less likely. They share just one top-10 finish between them, being Evans’s 10th place in Taupō.

WILL WINTERBOTTOM’S LAST DANCE END ON A HIGH?

This weekend is 2015 champion Mark Winterbottom’s last dance as a full-time Supercars driver, bringing to a close a 21-year career that’s spanned a remarkable 287 event entries and what will be 645 race starts by the time he hangs up his helmet for the final time on Sunday night.

The end has come suddenly, with the 43-year-old having expected to re-sign with Team 18 before the squad lunged suddenly for Anton de Pasquale.

With the driver market moving rapidly without him, Frosty decided to call it quits as a full-time racer, making Adelaide a weekend of high emotion.

“I’m in two minds.,” he said. “One, emotional and enjoy the weekend, but two, I want to go out on a high and try and win the race.

“One thing I’ve done really well over my career is control my emotions really well, so I’m trying to do that, but it’s definitely the hardest one.”

Adelaide is a mighty even to end on, but the track itself has offered Winterbottom only limited joy. Despite a career boasting 39 victories, he’s collected just two second-place finishes from the parklands track.

“Something about this place has haunted me,” he said. “I’ve led races and had engine failures and I led a race another time and broke a front roll bar, so I’ve been close and it’s one that I’ve really wanted to win.

“I’ve got one more crack, so I’ll have a go this weekend and I’ll enjoy the event for whatever comes of it.

“When you do finish, you want to tick off all your bucket list items, and this is one of them, so I’ll have a good crack.

“We’ll roll out and hopefully have a good weekend. That’s what I’m aiming for, to finish on a high, and if I can finish with a trophy, then that would be perfect.”

Tim Slade will also be wrapping up a 15-year full-time career this weekend.

Slade, 39 years old, said he was at peace calling quits on a run that delivered him two wins and 17 podium finishes.

“I’ve been in the sport for a long time, I’m genuinely looking forward to and excited for what’s next,” he told the Drivers Only podcast.

“It’s not like I’m still there hanging on or, ‘I wish I could stay in there’ or whatever else.

“I’m done. That’s me, and I’m happy where I’m at.”

WHO WILL WIN THE INAUGURAL JIM RICHARDS AWARD?

While the championship will be decided on the track this weekend, on Monday the sport will hand out a different prize: the inaugural Jim Richards Award for the season’s best and fairest driver.

Likened to the AFL’s Brownlow Medal, the Jim Richards Award will go to the driver who best displayed “on-track performance, professionalism and respectability” over the season as voted on by Supercars and Motorsport Australia officials.

Three drivers have received votes in 3-2-1 scoring order at every round so far, with only the votes for the Adelaide 500 remaining to decide the award’s first ever recipient.

“The Jim Richards Award honours a driver who embody the similar skills, racecraft, and adeptness that Jim Richards is well revered for,” Supercars general manager Tim Edwards said.

“It’s important for us to recognise not only our drivers’ abilities but the spirit in which they compete.

“The ‘best and fairest’ approach celebrates the drivers who perform at the highest level both in terms of outright performance and sportsmanship, qualities that Jim has always been known for.”

Richards said he was honoured to be commemorated by the new award.

“I’m genuinely touched, and knowing the quality of drivers that compete in Supercars, the winner and future winners of the Jim Richards Award will be truly deserving of it.

“Motorsport has been my life, and to see this award recognise drivers who show the same dedication to it is truly special.”

The award will be handed out on the same night as the long-running Barry Sheene Medal for “outstanding leadership, media interaction, character, personality, fan appeal and sportsmanship”.

The distinction between the two accolades is effectively on-track conduct compared to off-track contributions to the sport. The Barry Sheene Medal is also voted on by Supercars media rather than officials.